Sunday, May 17, 2009

Wang: “Performance-wise he was terrific. This was a much better hitting club. Columbus is a much better offensive club than the team he was facing last time, but his stuff was better last time to be honest. Although he performed great in both outings, he didn’t have the slider that he had last time. His changeup was better today than last time. His fastball velocity was a little bit lower this time than it was last time.“At the same time, he handled the lineup and got a lot of groundballs. Facing guys like (Travis) Hafner kind of tells you a little something you want to know. I know Hafner is on a rehab assignment and he’s a guy who can really do some damage if you’re making mistakes, not making some pitches, and he made his pitches. That tells you a lot.“What you’d love to see are all pitches working at optimal levels, but that’s not always realistic. Obviously the most important thing is performance and he has performed in his two starts here, there’s no doubt about that.”“Ultimately, with him, as long as he’s getting sink, he can pitch and be successful, there’s no doubt about that. And he feels good about himself. I had a chance to talk to him in the trainer’s room, so these are two trips well worthwhile for me. Our team is winning in New York and we are getting closer to being healthy and adding guys like a Bruney and a Wang and that’s a great thing for us.”

Bruney: “He looked healthy, which is the biggest thing for him. Unlike Wang, he’s coming off of an elbow injury, so you want to see health, and I saw health.”